


cepe et panem

by Constellalune



Category: Purple Hyacinth - Ephemerys & Sophism (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, High School, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:01:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,949
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29433546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Constellalune/pseuds/Constellalune
Summary: Just the cute fluffy days at Ardhalis High...The title is the best one I've come up with yet. :debbyryan:
Relationships: Kym Ladell & Kieran White, Kym Ladell & Lauren Sinclair, Lauren Sinclair & Kieran White, Lauren Sinclair/Kieran White, Lila Desroses/Lukas "Grumpy Cat" Randall, William Hawkes & Kieran White, William Hawkes & Kym Ladell, William Hawkes/Kym Ladell
Comments: 5
Kudos: 48





	cepe et panem

**Author's Note:**

> This is supposed to be multi chaptered which is why all the ships are mentioned

Kieran crouches on the pavement, hunches over, his arms hugging his knees as he brings his legs towards his body. He buries his head in his knees and lets out a heavy sigh. The sky was a plain grey sky, the clouds rolling in, covering the little brightness in the sky. He was just glad it wasn’t one of those days when the sky laughed at his misery. Looking up at the sky, he watches as the sun flashes him one last wicked grin before vanishing completely.

He is losing time, and along with that, his hope is getting lost too, dying just like his mother who lies in the shiny white box in the hospital. The doctor’s eyes sparkle less when they reassure him, and he _knows_ — he knows that look, for he, himself has been giving that look for the last 17 years of his life. The eyes that try so hard to say everything is okay but is too close to breaking.

Looking up at the sky, he feels a drop of water fall on his cheek, and soon, another, and another. Kieran never looks down, only continues keeping his eyes shut as he feels the rain blessing him, washing his worries away. He reaches for the beanie that sits on his head and sets his long hair free, allowing it to get a breath of air. The wind howls, and his hair whips in his face.

While pretending like his worries no longer existed, suddenly, the rain stopped because apparently Reality stopped by. Kieran pops open an eye to get a glance at the Nuisance who disrupted his dreams, and he lets out a heavy sigh when his sapphires meet beautiful golden eyes that were filled with something he may name as worry. To his utter dismay, Reality happened to be none other than Lauren Sinclair.

Who was also his math mentor.

Who was also a really, really pretty girl he would die to date.

Lauren Sinclair also was a big pain in the ass.

Right now, she was not his mentor, or the pretty girl but the pain in his ass, because he just wanted peace, with everything on his head; his grades, his dying mother, his little 9-year-old sister, Lola. Living with a single parent who was close to death with a younger sibling isn’t exactly what he would’ve prayed to God for, but he was grateful for Lola. Some days she is the only good thing in his day.

“What the heck are you doing here in the rain, dumbass?” Lauren demands, a frown on her face. “You can get pneumonia, do you realise that?”

“Well.” He ponders for a bit. “Maybe I like pretending I simply don’t exist to forget everything horrid about this world, and if I don’t exist, the rain should not affect me, but you, Lauren Sinclair, ruined my moment. **I was trying to feel like the kids in movies, y'know.** Sad, and gloomy so I sit out in the rain.”

Lauren pauses for a bit, looking at him like he was the biggest idiot on the face of this planet, pursuing her lips, never taking the umbrella away from above him. Finally, she extends her hand. “You need to go home. You’re going to catch a cold.”

He looks at her hand for a good two minutes before she lets out a frustrated groan, and takes his hand herself, pulling him under the umbrella next to her. She makes him hold the umbrella for them both because he was like a tower next to her, and she couldn’t be bothered to hold it up so high.

Kieran pushes his glasses back against his nose bridge, rolling his eyes, as they walked, walked wherever she was taking him, because he had no idea. “ **This is truly romantic, don’t you think? Rainy day, two lovers under one umbrella.** ”

“Shut up, subordinate.”

Finally, they stand before a black car, and he stares at it, and then asks very dumbly, “What is this?”

Lauren, who was going through her purse looking for her car keys, pauses and looks up at him giving him the _bruh_ look like she was seriously considering if he was the dumbest idiot— not just any idiot, but a _dumb_ idiot— to have ever existed on this planet. “It’s my car.”

“I know, I—” Kieran pauses. “Why am I here with you, again?”

She already opens the car door, and gets in, simply saying, “I am taking you home.”

Not having enough time to process, she scolds him to get in sooner, and he quickly nods, clutching onto his beanie as he gets in, feeling both dumb and like an idiot because he knew he must have looked like a crow after a bath.

Truly, the dumbest idiot.

___

Lauren throws him a face towel at his face that was printed with bread and avocados and she gives him a look which says don’t question it, so he simply shrugs wiping his face and a bit of his hair with it. The first 15 minutes was filled with an awkward silence, and Kieran had never felt more stiff in his entire life. It wasn’t one of those days in which he could crack a joke; _his mother was going to die in a few months, **die.**_

Today’s tuition with Lauren hadn’t gone any better either. He ended up storming out, and the fact that he was stuck with her made him feel more uncomfortable than ever. He had got the call from the doctor’s a few minutes before the class with her, and it was not helping that she kept looking at him like he was a disappointment, because he couldn’t stand getting any more looks like that.

After 15 minutes of suffocation, Lauren lets out a heavy breath, looking at him from the corner of her eye. “You okay?”

It takes him a while to respond, so caught up in his thoughts, he didn’t realise she had spoken to him. Lauren rolls her eyes, “Are you seriously going to ignore me because I wasn’t the nicest to you today?”

Finally, Kieran snaps out of his thoughts looking at her, like a lost puppy, and looks at her, blinking his rapidly, while frowning. “What?”

“I asked if you were okay.” She repeats, frowning, herself. “You aren’t yourself today.”

He lets out a soft chuckle, before looking up at her, eyes filled with a mocking hope, places a hand on his forehead as if he were to faint. “Dear God! Surely, this must be a dream! _The_ Lauren Sinclair showing emotion to Kieran White?!— let alone, _worry?_ My, my, I must really be losing my mind.”

To his great surprise, she actually laughs, and says, “Really, subordinate, do you think I am an idiot? Your antics won’t work on me.”

“ **What antics? I have no idea what you are talking—** ”

“You forget I can hear lies.” Lauren deadpans. “So, tell me, Kieran. What’s wrong, really?”

What she does next, is probably the last thing he expects her to do; she takes her hand off the steering wheel, so place it on his much larger one, holding it tight, in a comforting way. It’s evident in her eyes, as to what she wants to say: _please don’t lie to me. I hate it when you lie._

Instinctively, Kieran caresses the back of her palm, as if she were the one in need for comfort while looking outside the window, the roads empty, as if the world decided to give the two a moment together with no disturbances. The rain pitter patters against the window, and the world outside seems blurry; he is unable to tell what exactly he’s seeing.

He sighs, “It’s—I got a call from my mother’s doctor. And—” He pauses, as if expecting a reaction from her, but she gives none, a sign to continue. Kieran completes his sentence softly. “She doesn’t have much time.”

Lauren squeezes his hand tighter, turning into another road. “Have they tried everything?”

“Well, whatever we could… afford, yes.” He speaks. He knows that she is aware of his financial position but that doesn’t make it easier to speak about it. “It’s futile. But **it’s fine** , I should just suck it up, nothing much can be done.”

She still doesn’t reply, but she doesn’t take her hand off his either. Before he knows it, they’re in front of his apartment, and she parks outside. Finally, she lets out a sigh, gulping while massaging his hand. Lauren, then, looks up at him, nibbling her lower lip. “What if I—what if I helped you?”

Kieran frowns. “How?”

“Well, I can give you some mone—”

He doesn’t allow her to finish the sentence, pulling his hand out of hers, creases building on her forehead. Kieran shakes his head, “No, Lauren, that’s not happening.”

“But—”

“No.”

“I—”

Kieran looks at her, almost coldly, “I said no, and that’s final, Lauren.”

They sit in silence for a bit, Kieran biting his lip, closing his eyes and angling his neck towards the roof of the car. His eyes burn, and he massages the bridge of his nose, sighing, and saying softly, “I’m sorry.”

She replies with a soft, “It’s okay.” and the silence returns. Kieran clears his throat, coughing slightly—which was clearly a fake cough—and looked at her, smiling awkwardly. “Would you like to come in, that’s the least I could do after you giving me a drive _and_ tolerating me.”

Lauren chuckles. “I like your presence, subordinate, I don’t have to necessarily ‘tolerate’ you.”

It has stopped raining at that point—when they get out of the car, the sun shimmers ever so slightly and the two enter, while a rainbow smiles at them.

___

They end up on his sofa, talking about school, their teachers and well, _life_. Kieran would be lying if he said he wasn’t having fun, in fact, he hasn’t had so much fun in _ages_. She speaks about a project she’s working on, and he notices just how beautiful she looks. The pool of blood that flows down past her shoulders, stopping right around her hips, her golden eyes that reminded him so much of the sun, if it was a day in which he was drunk, surely, he would mistake her eyes for the sun. Her skin was pale, and her jaw, sharp enough to cut grass, while her nose was small and pointed, and she reminded him of a fox.

He finds it adorable, how passionate she sounds about this project she’s working on, her biggest dream, is what she calls it. Suddenly, she stops talking, and looks at him, pulling her legs up and resting them on the sofa.

“My only worry is…” Lauren frowns, pausing. “Once I pursue that dream, what then?”

Kieran is slightly startled by the sudden question, but he recovers quickly, smiling at her, holding her cheek—no one knows what compelled him to do that but oh well—and his eyes shine a little brighter than they were before. “You’ll find a new dream.”

Lauren smiles at him and he feels his heart throb, because it’s so awfully _raw_ and _real_. She leans against him, then, sighing and stretching. “I’m tired.”

Wrapping his arms around her, he replies, “Sleep, then.”

She yawns, and just before she lets the darkness cloud her vision, she says:

“Oh and, happy valentine’s day. And happy birthday. I didn’t forget, subordinate.”

Kieran’s eyes dilate slightly, wondering how she knows about his birthday, but deciding he, too, was tired, he closes his eyes, resting his head on hers, allowing himself to get lost in a reverie.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't question the title. It is simply impossible for a mere human to comprehend this kind of intelligence. 
> 
> Ok but did you catch the tangled reference at the end? Hehe
> 
> Yes lola is inspired by the real lola. You will see her soon. I think.
> 
> Kudos and comments are appreciated


End file.
